Student Spotlight: Student Spotlight features one of our current School of Information Sciences Master students. Our students come from a variety of backgrounds, careers, locations, and academics, and we want to highlight who they are and why they chose the University of Tennessee, Knoxville SIS program.

Featured student: Sarah Gonzalez

Location: Knoxville, Tennessee

Current job: Sponsored programs coordinator at the University of Tennessee’s Office of Research and Engagement.

Strong African-American women have been present for almost all of the pivotal moments in LaVerne Gray’s career–both professionally and academically.

These were the women she wrote about in her doctoral classes at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and for her dissertation, “In a Collective Voice:  Uncovering the Black Feminist Information Community of Activist Mothers in Chicago Public Housing, 1955-1970.” But apart from the historical figures who inspired her research, Gray can also point to specific women who were integral in getting her to push past her own limits, and expand her knowledge and education.

SIS student Sharra Rosichan is the type of person who will teach herself something that she’s interested in – such as how to write code, design websites or read maps.

She was a voracious reader at a very young age – reading before talking, and consuming chapter books by the time she was four years old, she said. It was only natural that she would later end up working for a library system and getting her degree in information sciences.

Four SIS students were recently published in The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, all of whom wrote their papers as part of a classroom assignment under Professor Bharat Mehra, in his Diversity Leadership in Information Organizations class.

Mehra, who is also the Emerging Voices Editor for the journal, said all four students had done exceptional work on their projects and papers.

“As an instructor, it was truly inspiring to nurture student passion and enthusiasm towards social justice concerns and mobilize diversity and inclusion while proposing progressive changes in their information organizations and communities,” Mehra said.

Lecturer: Julie Ann Winkelstein

Location: California, Bay Area near Berkeley (Albany, CA)

Academic Background: Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Arts from the University of California, Berkeley; Masters of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University; PhD in Information and Communication from University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Work Background: Before I entered the UTK doctoral program, I worked as a public librarian for 20 years, including as a jail and prison librarian, and in a branch as a teen librarian and children’s librarian, as well as several other positions.

How did you become a lecturer at SIS?

Featured student: Technical Sergeant Jeremy Horner

Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Current job: US Air Force Wings of Blue Parachute Team at the United States Air Force Academy. “We teach cadets how to skydive and how to be a leader. They’ll do about 400-500 jumps with us, doing things like jumping at football games and air shows.”

Past job(s): Test parachutist at Edwards Air Force Base in California, working for special tactics training squadron teaching combat controllers who to jump out of planes and take over enemy airfields.

Family: Married with four daughters, ages 8, 6, 4, and 2 months.